Off- duty paramedic saves his collapsed wife’s life by giving her CPR

AN off- duty paramedic gave lifesaving CPR to his own wife after she suffered a sudden cardiac arrest at their home.

Cerys Wilkins, 48, collapsed without warning on the landing after saying goodnight to her two children in Pentrebach, Wales.

Her husband Phil Wilkins, 50, who has been a paramedic for 16 years, heard a “thud” and rushed upstairs to help.

He gave chest compressions and rescue breaths to his wife while their daughter Ella, 18, dialled 999.

Colleagues from the Welsh Ambulance Service arrived at the house within six minutes and helped resuscitate Mrs Wilkins.

They delivered a shock with a defibrillator, which restarted the school nurse’s heart.

She was taken to the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff, where she is still undergoing treatment.

Her family is now urging everyone to learn life- saving CPR.

“At not one point through the whole ordeal did I think of it as my wife,” Mr Wilkins said.

“Instinct and training kicked in, and I just did what I had to do.”

As a teenager, Mrs Wilkins was diagnosed with supraventricular tachycardia ( SVT), a condition where the heart suddenly beats much faster than normal.

Six years ago, she underwent a procedure called an ablation to fix the problem. It is hoped that Mrs Wilkins, a former paediatric nurse, will be fitted with a pacemaker and defibrillator before her discharge from hospital. The family thanked the Welsh Ambulance Service as well as teams at the University Hospital for Wales for their care.

They are supporting the ambulance service’s annual Shoctober campaign, which encourages people to learn CPR.